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1.8.3-Pilferingapples
Brick!club Les Miserables 1.8.3 Javert Satisfied IT IS STILL FRIDAY SOMEWHERE DARN IT I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY POST BECAUSE OF ~WEATHER~. Especially not when it’s a whole chapter about the theory of strength/virtue as weakness/ fault, which is a thing I adore! And one of the reasons I really love characters in This Book Though, is that for all the explicit Shoulder Angels and Devils in the text, all the sharply split roads and either/or moral dilemmas, the actual people are not dualistic. Javert is “probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the idea of duty” and that’s what makes him great— and also what makes him hideous*.And it’s AT THE SAME TIME. I will try not to rant on about the way I see so much writing advice for authors to give their characters ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ as opposed to ‘traits’, because Hugo is SO WAY AHEAD OF ME ON THAT and this is basically why I love Javert as a character— he’s not a Bad Guy, he’s admirable in a lot of ways, but…’error’. Error enters his thoughts and he’s got no way to correct it, no ameliorating quality, and no connection with another person who might make up for his own rigid sense of the world. Which, for once, I’m NOT GOING TO THAT COMPARISON YOU KNOW THE ONE, I’m actually thinking how much it makes him like Fantine— who did her best, pursued the path she thought was as close to right and respectable, and did it alone, turning aside intervening advice as she went. That has not led to an entirely sunny outcome here, of course, since she’s about to have a heart attack on seeing Good Inspector Javert—who is ‘pitiful’ in his triumph, and without knowing it. ** And while this chapter is not The Part Where I Sort of Understand Javert, I think it may be the part where I Sort of Understand Some Things Better Because Javert? He’s Good People About To Do Bad Things, and presaging the HECK out of the Milgram experiments, he’s going to do it For Authority and with joy in his heart. Javert, you are fantastic and scary and I am sorry. Next Chapter: Oh Fantine, your time is running out… * I was going to type ‘terrible’ but that’s someone else’s Thing. But I think it applies here too. **NEVER GO IT ALONE IN LES MISERABLES YOU WILL DIE AND DIE SAD. At least if you die with friends around you’ve got like a 90 percent chance of dying fighting/smiling/actively joking. Commentary Kalevala-sage Remarking on parallel structure as I am wont to do, while the chapter title here, “''Javert content'',” shares an obvious structural similarity to “''Fantine heureuse'',” it’s further notable that both terminal adjectives are acceptable French translations of “happy,” “''content''" being what I recall to be the first descriptor I learnt for, uh, smiley faces—while "satisfied" is certainly an acceptable interpretation, the ambiguity of the original sows a disparity between Fantine’s sheer happiness and Javert’s more adulterated emotion. Pilf suggested a comparison of Javert to Stanley Milgram’s traumatized and undebriefed subjects, which might be extracted from the fact that ”''quelqu’un qui l’eût connu à fond et qui l’eût examiné attentivement eût frémi'',” nicely contends that Javert truly has a heart, though it ends up corrupted and outspoken by the powers that be… As the politics begin to roll in (what’s this about being ardent? the word’s connotations are a bit flagrant for a post-royalist bunch as is implied) I have nothing else to add tonight except the irony of the syllabic length of “epiphonema” (though it’s just “épiphonème” in French); if pressed to continue I’ll likely just start making gags about Javert’s col de cuir because he’s such a sub. Pilgrim--soul I read the last bit about the dying while laughing and joking and all I could think of was AMIS ASFSFDGH (Courfeyrac’s hat, etc.) x.x Gascon-en-exile I think I’m a day late here, but this is Brick Club, not Rigid Deadlines Club. The title of this chapter and that of the last are obviously parallel, but I think it odd that Javert, who here achieves a sort of spiritual transcendence in his own mind, one that encompasses both stars and angels and other symbols Hugo likes a bit too much, and yet he is simple “''content''" whereas Fantine was "heureuse.” It’s probably meant to evoke his external appearance of calm disturbed only by minor disarray in his uniform in contrast to Fantine’s raving delight. Speaking of shoulder angels and demons, Javert has both “''le visage d’un démon''" and "la bestialité surhumaine d’un archange féroce" in this scene. Forget Javert vilifying Lucifer in "Stars" - he basically is Lucifer, embodying (or so he thinks) the divine judgment demons are tasked to deliver as well as the ferocious qualities of non-fallen angels. William Blake would be proud of this duality. It kind of makes me even more irked about how straightforwardly self-righteous musical!Javert is, but such is the inevitable price of adaptation: Enjolras is much less queer, Éponine is much less social commentary, and Javert is much less morally complex statement on human justice.